Iveco is the commercial vehicle business that was born out of the merger of a series of truck builders in 1975. So, whilst Iveco itself does not have such a long history as many other European truck manufacturers, each of the founding companies have histories reaching back into the nineteenth century.
Now part of the CNH (Case New Holland) group with UK headquarters in Basildon, Iveco remains primarily an Italian manufacturer of trucks and vans. Iveco’s main models are – in order of size – the Stralis, Trakker, Eurocargo and Daily vans.
The company’s reputation in the UK has not been the strongest, with early issues that caused the brand some problems, but certainly since 2000, their trucks and vans have been able to compete head on with the rest of the manufacturers.
Five companies came together in 1975 pooling resources and product lines to create one company. The ‘Veicoli Industriali’ arm of the Fiat conglomerate was the largest of the five, therefore headquartering the business in Turin. The remaining companies were Magirus-Deutz of Germany, Lancia Veicoli Speciali of Italy, Unic of France and OM of Brescia in Italy.
The company spent its early years rationalising the model ranges and networks of the existing businesses, whilst developing a series of joint products that was to be the future for the business.
The launch of the Zeta, followed by the first Iveco Daily vans made little impact on the UK commercial vehicle market. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that Iveco became a name in the UK, partially thanks to the launch of the Turbo Star heavy truck range, but more importantly through the 1986 acquisition of the Ford of Europe’s truck business. Ford were very strong in the UK with their Langley-built Ford Cargo, so Iveco effectively bought their way into a best seller. It came as no surprise that the Ford name was kept on the trucks ‘Iveco-Ford’ was born.
At the beginning of the 1990s and the UK’s recession, Iveco made plenty of changes as far as the UK was concerned. The new Iveco Eurocargo was initially manufactured at Langley, but production stopped in 1997 and production moved to Italy.
In 1991 Seddon Atkinson joined the Iveco group in the UK – the manufacturer was well known for their 8 wheel tippers and history of tractor unit manufacture in the UK. At the same time Iveco bought the Spanish manufacturer ENASA which made the Pegasus range of trucks. A busy time for Iveco and did they bite off more than they could chew at the beginning of a recession?
Nonetheless, the company managed to revamp their entire range at this time- the Eurocargo, EuroTrakker (now simply Trakker), EuroTech and EuroStar, (relaced by the Stralis then the S-Way).
There have been plenty more changes since. 2011 saw Fiat Industrial formed, containing Iveco, CNH and Fiat Powertrains Industrial. In 2013 CNH Global and Fiat Industrial merged to form CNH Industrial NV (now a Dutch company).
The results of three months work since the joint agreement was signed between Iveco and Nikola to convert S-Way trucks into battery electric vehicles (BEV). Perhaps we should start calling them Battery Electric Trucks (BET – sounds better than BEV)? So far they have released images of the scale model – or maquette – of…
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